When to Use RRational¶

RRational is designed for researchers who collect heart rate variability (HRV) data using mobile recording apps and need a reliable, transparent way to analyze it. If any of the following scenarios apply to you, RRational can help.

Who Is This For?¶

Researchers with HRV Recording Data¶

You recorded RR intervals using HRV Logger (iOS/Android) or VNS Analyse (iOS) and need to:

Clean and inspect your data visually
Detect and correct artifacts
Analyze HRV metrics per experimental condition
Compare metrics across participants or groups
Export publication-ready results

Students Working on HRV Projects¶

You're working on a thesis or course project involving HRV data and need:

A free alternative to Kubios HRV (no license costs)
Step-by-step guidance through the analysis pipeline
Scientific best practices built into the tool
Transparent, reproducible results

Anyone Who Wants a Free Kubios Alternative¶

Kubios HRV is the gold standard but requires a paid license. RRational provides comparable functionality for common research workflows — for free.

Research Scenarios¶

Music & Emotion Studies¶

The original use case for RRational. Your study involves:

Participants listening to different music pieces in randomized order
Each condition lasts a fixed duration (e.g., 5 minutes)
You want to compare HRV metrics between music conditions
Multiple randomization sequences for counterbalancing

RRational features for this: Event sequences, repeating section analysis, condition-based grouping, per-section HRV metrics.

Stress & Relaxation Research¶

Your study measures physiological stress responses:

Baseline → Stress task → Recovery phases
You need to compare HRV between phases
Multiple measurement sessions per participant

RRational features for this: Section definitions with event boundaries, expected duration validation, group-level comparison.

Clinical HRV Monitoring¶

You collect HRV data in clinical settings:

Long recordings (60-120+ minutes)
Need to identify and exclude artifact-heavy segments
Quality assessment is critical for publication

RRational features for this: Time-based segmentation, per-segment quality grading (Quigley 2024), artifact correction, exclusion zones.

Repeated-Measures Designs¶

Any study with repeating experimental conditions:

Condition A → Condition B → Condition C → (repeat)
Fixed intervals between conditions
Counterbalanced order across participants

RRational features for this: Event sequences with condition order, repeating section analysis, automatic condition assignment.

What You Need¶

Requirement	Details
HRV data	RR-interval files in any of 8 supported formats (HRV Logger, VNS Analyse, Polar, Empatica, Elite HRV, Kubios, plain text) — see Data Formats
Computer	Windows, macOS, or Linux
Python	Version 3.11, 3.12, or 3.13
Time	~10 minutes for setup, ~5 minutes per participant for analysis

What RRational Does NOT Do¶

R-peak detection from raw ECG/PPG — RRational works with pre-detected RR intervals, not raw physiological signals
Real-time monitoring — RRational is for post-hoc analysis, not live data
Multiscale entropy (MSE) — DFA and sample entropy are supported (via NeuroKit2's nonlinear HRV); only multiscale entropy (MSE) is not implemented

Next Steps¶

Ready to get started?